Did you know?

• A nine-year research study conducted at New York State University of more than 12,000 men with a high risk of heart disease found that if these men took regular vacations, they were less likely to die prematurely.
• According to Alan Muney, M.D. and chief medical officer and executive vice-president at Oxford Health Plans, Inc., “Regular vacations are preventative medicine–they cut down on stress-related illness and save health care dollars.” A major survey conducted in 2000 found that one in six adults who responded to the survey didn’t take any kind of vacation because of their work or other pressures in their lives.
• In 1973, households averaged 26.2 hours a week for relaxation, leisure activities and socializing. By 1999, this decreased to 19.8 hours a week according to researcher, Gary Burtless.
• A 2002 study conducted by the Families and Work Institute found 80% of college-educated employees of all ages reported a desire to work less, indicating that both men and women want to achieve more balance in the work and family lives.
• Working outside of the home is significantly affecting the lives of families
  • To climb the corporate ladder, more and more workers are in the office for longer and longer hours with less time to spend with their families.
  • Workers are taking more and more work home.
  • Technology, such as the Internet and PC, is making it increasingly hard to leave work at the office.
  • Those who work outside of the home are skipping meals with their families to work late.
  • Many corporate executives travel on weekends for business.
• In discussing the problem of balancing work and family, a senior manager said that no one in his company who wanted to get ahead was taking weekends off. In fact six and seven day weeks were the norm (Ivey Business Journal, July-August 2005). Unfortunately, this is pretty typical in Corporate America.
• In a survey conducted by professors Linda Duxbury and Chris Higgins (Ivey Business Journal, July-August 2005), when asked how they cope with the challenges of work-family conflict:
  • Seventy-eight percent say they work even harder.
  • Sixty percent report they cut down on outside activities.
  • Fifty-Five percent state they get less sleep.
  • One-fourth of the women surveyed said they had fewer children because of work demands; 15% of the men said this was also true for them.
  • Because of the demands of work, 42% of professional women and 30% of the men surveyed say they had not started a family.

I believe that more and more people are seeking a work-life balance, but their financial circumstances or beliefs associated with their finances, are limiting factors.  When we believe that we have to work harder, longer or get a better paying job in order for us to have some type of balance in life, we are only deceiving ourselves.  Working longer hours may give us more pay (assuming you are working as a wage earner as opposed to salaried), but we take more time away from life and family.  Working harder, well what does that really mean?  For most people, this is just another way of saying, “I need to work longer hours to show the boss that I am working harder.”  BS!!  Sorry, but in today’s world, we need to learn to work smarter, period!  Many of us get a second job. Our partners are working too. The result is that we spend very little time together, and getting to know one another.  In fact the opposite starts to occur.  We get to know our partners less and less. The result is breakup or divorce in most cases.

The world we live in has a notion that we need more money, we need to keep up with the Jones and we should use credit to pay for our purchases.  Does any of this actually give us the balance that we not only need, but crave?  Are we following an illusion?

Is it possible to achieve a work-life balance where our families get the time that they deserve, where we can spend time doing the things we really do enjoy doing?  Is there a way to achieve this without cutting back on our lifestyle, without making unhealthy eating choices, or without stopping interaction with our families and communities?

Work-life balance is about working smarter and making choices that will benefit our families and our offspring.  It is about feeding our minds and emotions, our intellects and psyches.

If we keep doing the same things today that we did yesterday, we will have tomorrow what we have today!  Is that insanity, or what? You’d better believe it.

Start doing something different today, so that tomorrow you will have success and balance in your life.  Get healthy, start working smarter; leverage yourself, your time and your money. Spend time with your partner and kids. You won’t regret it!  Do something every week that you are passionate about or really enjoy doing, perhaps a sport or hobby?  Get away from the TV and newspapers.

Have fun, and make it a balanced and successful day!

Peter

Did you know?

• According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, poor nutrition can lead to many chronic diseases and medical concerns, including:
  • Cancer
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity
  • Osteoporosis
  • Stroke
• “Our soil is totally barren and 95% depleted of the basic survival ingredients” (World Health Organization, 1993).
• The modern American diet is public health threat number one (American Journal of Preventive Medicine, March-April 1995).
• “Every adult regardless of age or health status needs a multivitamin to fill the nutritional gaps in his/her diet.” (The Journal of American Medical Association).
• Ninety-seven percent of Americans are nutrient deficient (JAMA).
• According to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, the only responsibility a manufacturer of supplements has is to ensure the supplement is not dangerous before they market it.
• Supplement manufacturers are obligated legally to formulate supplements to only 90% of what their labels state. Some companies include 60% or less of what they claim because they know it is unlikely they will get caught (Dr. William Wheeler, Ph.D., R.D.). They may also include ingredients and impurities not listed on the label. Often the labels that manufacturers put on supplement containers do not adequately reflect what is contained in those supplements.
• The prevalence of individuals who are overweight or obese has steadily increased. Almost two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight, and 30.5 percent are obese, according to data from the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
• The incidence of childhood obesity is also on the rise.

So what can you do about it?  Great question.  Start eating healthier foods, organic foods, drink natural spring water and not tap water. Stay away from processed and junk foods, including fast foods.  Look at nutritional programs like the Isagenix programs for cleansing your body of impurities and replenishing it with natural wholesome nutrients that your body needs.

When you give your body all the nutrients it needs, it knows what to do to keep you healthy, keep you trim and give you the energy you deserve.  In fact you deserve to be healthy, full of energy and living your life to the fullest potential.  It is who you are meant to be!!  Think about it…

Go make it a healthy and nutritious day and share it with someone special!

Peter

* Accelerate the removal of impurities from the body.

* Nourish the body with vital nutrients to rapidly revive health.

A cleansed and revitalized body is stronger, better at resisting illness, is more efficient and performs at a higher level than one that is filled with impurities. Many people notice an ability to reach and maintain their ideal weight, experience increased energy and improved mental acuity.

Click here to watch this video

May I share my personal experience with nutritional cleansing with you?  Thank you!

I was at a place in my life where I was totally stressed, not sleeping well and always tired. Two weeks away from going on a much needed vacation.  Within 5 days of getting all the wholesome, natural nutrition into my body, and starting the process of cleansing the impurities from my body, I had more energy and mental clarity and being able to sleep restfully through the night was a true blessing.  Going on vacation full of energy and vitality as compared to spending half of it trying to recharge, is so much more fun and enjoyable!  Wouldn’t you agree?!  To boot, I also lost about 17 pounds, gained lean muscle mass and feel so much younger.  Who wouldn’t want that…

Make it an amazing and healthy day!

Peter

PS. if  you are interested in finding out more about it, send me a comment.

Success is a journey that every one  of us travels.  What we choose to do with our lives, how we choose to live it, the attitude we have towards it, will determine our success.

Go and create a successful life!  Seeking a roadmap?  Send me a comment and I would be more than happy to assist you.

Peter

Click Here to watch is the video

We have all been created and I mean every single one of us on this planet we call earth, have been created to live our lives to the fullest, to be all we are meant to be, all we were created to be.  Now for some of us this notion maybe a bit strange, maybe foreign even, and that’s ok.  Hopefully by the end of this short piece you will think differently about yourself.

That place of living life to fullest was dangerous and filled with unknowns.   I have now come to discover that these things are actually not there, they just don’t exist!  They are in our minds and only in our minds, they are stories we tell ourselves.

I know that many years ago I satisfied this hunger inside of me with fear talk which led to inactivity and wasting time on meaningless tasks and projects.  One day blended into the next.  It seemed better to stay that way and just blend in with everyone else around me.  Besides when I did occasionally step outside this status quo box, people would say I could never do that, I was not meant to do that.  Wow looking back now, I wonder what they would say…  I would hazard a guess that those people are still there where I left them!  Rather sad.

But maybe with what you have just read you are wondering if you really have given it all, if you really know just how hungry you are…

So go and watch this video with Les Brown if you haven’t already done so and I challenge you to check yourself and see if you are letting that full, deep hunger drive you and holding nothing back.  I know that I was holding back until I watched this video and now my hunger is even greater and I am now doing more to feed it to change my life quicker and better, to really start to live my life.

If there is anything I can assist any of you with, please do not hesitate to connect with me.  You all deserve to live life to the fullest, to all that you are meant to be!

Go make it an awesome day everyone!

Peter

Personal development is about creating you and not finding you.  Every one of us has been created as a wonderful person with infinite potential and certain abilities to be so much in this world.  It is already inside of you.  What you do with it is now up to you. We all have the ability to create a wonderful and amazing life for ourselves.

Often we let ourselves be held back and stunted in our growth by our past experiences and resulting limiting beliefs.  I am no different here.  For me it has and still is a journey and even though I wish I did not have to go through some of the stuff that I did, I am forever grateful for the journey and the realization that it is up to me to create my life.  No one else will create it for me and there is nothing to find, you create it!  This ‘creating you’ is not an overnight transformation and requires you to know, really know, what it is that is in your heart, deep down, that drives you and lets your passion overflow.  I know it can take some time but never give up on that discovery journey.  Life is so amazing when we have found it and can start creating it for ourselves!

“Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
- George Bernard Shaw

So go out, be bold, stand firm, be courageous, look only forward and never backwards and create the amazing YOU!

Make it an amazing and creative YOU week!

In health, wealth & adventure!

Peter

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give” ~ Winston Churchill

Give the opportunity of good health and vitality to someone…who can I give that to today?

Fear besets us all at one time or another, some of us maybe more than others.  I know I have been facing many fears lately, being afraid of what might or might not happen, afraid of succeeding.  My Impostor is holding me back through this process big time.  Fears and being afraid of taking action stop us from living a full life, living to your true and full potential.

Lately I have been struggling with this and noticed that I was spending a inordinate amount of time dwelling on the fears and things holding me back instead of my vision, my ‘why’.  It is easy to get caught up in that vicious circle of fear, where fear->in-action->frustration->more fear etc.

The more you focus on your fears, the more they play with your head.

- It is the story we create around something, a person, a prospect, a connection, that nurtures this fear and allows it to grow at such a rapid rate.  There is no story other than the one we create around it.

- Have no expectation of anyone, any outcome or any circumstance.  As we develop an expectation we put ourselves into a position that if our expectation is not realised, our Impostor confirms that we are no good, useless and a failure.

So accept “The Offer” as that, an offer, a new friend, a new experience to grow and nothing more.  Detachment from it will be your ally.

So instead of getting caught up in fear, catch yourself and focus on your vision, your ‘why’, visualise it in your mind and use it to take you into action, one step at a time, to reach your goal.  If you live into your vision, your purpose, your passion, then and only then, are you truly living and making a difference in people’s lives!

Now Go and have an awesome and fearless day!

Peter

Is this not the truth about life. I once believed that if I fell down, if I did not succeed at the first attempt, I had failed and that was it, I was done for, over, no more, I was a failure. Can you relate to this?

Now the nugget to pick up here is that as David Wood keeps saying, it’s that while we are down, pick something up, something that you learnt while you were down there and use it so that you can move forward and succeed.
By getting up again you are succeeding, you are winning, you are achieving. This is such a powerful concept. So I think of falling down this way: Every time I fall and get up again, I am 1 step closer to my goal, to achieving my vision!!

So go out, don’t fear falling down but make sure you pick up something and you pick yourself up! Keep going. As Winston Churchill so brilliantly said “never, never, never give up”.

You can do!

I believe in you!
Peter

Suggested reading:  “Failing Forward” by John C. Maxwell